Word.ws English Dictionary

who shot John

who shot John noun: long and involved explanation, finger-pointing, or assignment of credit or blame.

Noun

who shot John (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Long and involved explanation, finger-pointing, or assignment of credit or blame.
    • I haven't been in on any of the sessions, I don't intend to get directly involved, and I'm not going to engage in any speculation about "who shot John".1972, Dean Burch, Speech Before NCTA.
    • I really do not think it is appropriate to come up here and present to this committee or to the Congress the "who shot John" processes by which the President makes decisions.1979, Mr. Morris, quoted in Reauthorization of programs under the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979 : hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of...
  2. (idiomatic) Nonsense; rubbish.
    • This "Who-Shot-John" stuff about "Love thine enemy" is all very pretty, but I would rather have a little regard and do a good turn for a man that has proved himself my friend by having stuck to the organization that has raised my wages and thereby making It possible for me to give my family more of...1917 April, Hal B. Stroup, “letter”, in The Bricklayer, mason and plasterer, volume 20, Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers International Union of America, page 25
    • He never raised the topic of religion, but if it did happen to come up, he would promptly close the conversation by dismissing the entire subject as “a bunch of who shot John".2016, Charles B. Dew, The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade
  3. (idiomatic) Something bad; a mess.
    • "I don't know why you wanna run around looking like Who Shot John," exclaims Monica's mother, played by Alfre Woodard. These words may seem a bit harsh, but they were supposedly said with a loving sentiment.2008, Theresa Renee White, Media as Pedagogy and Socializing Agent
    • I know this topic goes both ways because there are women who also fall short in this area and need to douche on a regular basis with the way they are running around smelling like “who shot John”. However, the topic is on you men […]2012, Cattina C. Coleman, To Have, To Hold, and To Never Let Go
  4. (Southern US) Liquor, especially illegally made.
    • Red Mammy, the proprietress, bootlegs a horrendous brew known as "Who Shot John?"1932, B Crawford, “Piney Ridge, Virginia”, in The Virginia Quarterly Review
    Synonyms:
    hooch, moonshine

Examples of who shot John in a sentence

  • A great number of the most important questions presented to our regulatory agencies have nothing to do with "who shot John."1980, Leonard S Janofsky, “On the Roads to Regulatory Reform”, in American Bar Association Journal:
  • Adjudication procedures are great for "who shot John" questions, but not for the great mass of policy issues which will come before the Board in its first few years.1985, JT O'Reilly, LABOR LAW COLLOQUIUM: The First Anniversary of the Ohio Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law:
  • It is hard to go back and do a who shot John and determine who is responsible for the procedures that are in effect today.1984, Hearing on H.R. 4805 ... and H.R. 425 ... Before the Investigations Subcommittee on the Committee on Armed Services, House of...
  • I called the attorneys to the bench and said, "You know I'm not interested in who shot John in this divorce.1995, M Shipley, “Family Mediation in Tennessee”, in University of Memphis Law Review:

Synonyms of who shot John

Origin of who shot John

First attested in the 1860s as a game among students at British military academies; in later use, chiefly US.

Questions about who shot John

What does who shot John mean?
Who shot John means long and involved explanation, finger-pointing, or assignment of credit or blame.
How do you use who shot John in a sentence?
A great number of the most important questions presented to our regulatory agencies have nothing to do with "who shot John."
What part of speech is who shot John?
Who shot John is a noun.

Words near who shot John in the dictionary

  1. who keeps company with wolves, will learn to howl
  2. who knew
  3. who knows
  4. who pays the piper calls the tune
  5. who put a quarter in you
  6. who shot John
  7. who so
  8. who took the jam out of your doughnut
  9. who wants to know
  10. who was your servant last year
  11. who watches the watchers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: who shot John (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-who shot John.ogg.

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